narayan

Can the teleconverter TC-14E II be used with the Nikon 300mm f/4 AF-S lens on a

manual focus body such as the FM2N (without any damage to equipment)? Also, is

it safe to use the TC-14E II in combination with the 300mm f/4 AF-S lens and

PN-11 extension tube? Thanks.

Annoyingly, my F100's original body cap keeps coming off. This is the white

plastic one of the slip-on type. Is the the body cap BF-1A supplied with the

D200 compatible with the F100? This cap is black in color and has to be turned

to secure (bayonet). Thanks!

Greg, I am not going for the Kenko tubes because (a) most of the time I don't need AF for macro work, and (b) I've heard that they have issues with vignetting and build quality.

Update to my previous comments:

1. It seems that the Nikon tubes do retain metering on the F100 and D200 bodies.

2. I discovered after some research that the Nikon AFS TCs cannot be used (unless modified) with the Nikon tubes. So I won't be able to use my TC1.4E on the PN-11 with 300 AFS to get near lifesize. The TC can however be mounted on the lens (with PN-11 attached to the camera, behind the TC), but the magnification achieved is only about 0.125x :(

Derek, the PK-13 is a manual extension tube, which does not couple autofocus and aperture. If you are talking about the Nikon 105mm f/2.8 VR macro lens, then PK-13 (or any other nikon extension tube) is not the right tube to use because you will not have aperture control on this "G" lens.

If you really want magnifications greater than lifesize with this lens, you'll probably have to rely on third party tubes like the one Kenko makes. From what I've read, these should couple autofocus, aperture, and metering. Or maybe try a TC and/or diopter lens.

Thanks, guys.

Dieter, that table is neat...I was looking for something like that. With the PN-11, working distance of 3.5 feet for a magnification of about 1/2X seems to be good. I guess with the TC-1.4E added, the combo's min. focus distance is unchanged but magnification is 1.4 times 1/2X.

Couple more questions:

1. I understand I'll lose autofocus with the PN-11. But will I have metering with the D200 and F100 bodies?

2. I have the Krik collar on my 300mm AFS. Does anyone make an attachment to combine the PN-11's collar with it?

Thanks.

For "long-distance" macros, how is the image quality of the Nikon 300mm f/4 AFS

lens when combined with the PN-11 extension tube? By itself, the close focus

distance of the lens is about 5 ft. What are the far and near focus distances of

the combo, what is the achievable magnification and working distance? What if

the PK-13 extension tube and Canon 500D closeup lens are also thrown into the

mix? Thanks!

Everyone:

hiro's link of keh.com seems to indicate that there is indeed a Nikon AF 70-300mm f/4-5.6D lens that is not ED:

http://www.keh.com/OnLineStore/ProductList.aspx?Mode=searchproducts&item=0&ActivateTOC2=false&ID=&Size=&BC=&BCC=&CC=&CCC=&BCL=&GBC=&GCC=&KW=nikon%2070-300

The lens has an aperture ring and is therefore not of the "G" type. But it is cheaper than the 70-300 f/4-5.6D ED version (see link above).

Is there a non-ED version of the Nikon AF 70-300 f/4-5.6D lens? If not, are

there versions of this lens that have ED glass but do not have ED written on

them. Thanks!

Thanks, Anthony and Oivind. Your comments are very helpful for me.

Oivind - I will now try to use near uni-wb instead of exact uni-wb. I assume the difference in the histograms due to this "approximation" is negligible in practice.

Anthony - If I include a gray card in my scene's lighting (assume uniform) with uni-wb (or near uni-wb) being used for good exposure, is that not effectively the same as what you are suggesting? The purpose is to restore the actual "correct" white balance for the scene in post-processing, right?

That brings up another interesting question. Not a uni-wb issue per se, but rather a correct white balance choice one. My problem is that of sunrises and sunsets, where I want to bring out the rich reds and blues. If I use a gray card in the same light to measure/adjust white balance, these hues may be lost. What is the correct white balance to use in this situation? Probably restoring "Daylight" white balance may do the job?

Thanks, Oivind. I am setting uni-white balance using the file made available here:

http://photos.imageevent.com/tonybeach/mypicturesfolder/junk/DSC_0001.jpg

Not sure if this sets the coefficients to exactly 1, or near uni-white balance. But yes, this could be the problem. Let me try near uni-wb instead.

Why do you re-shoot the frame again with the same exposure but normal WB? Are you shooting JPEG? Because with RAW files, we can always apply whatever WB we want later.

I am trying to use uni-white balance with some sunset pictures on the D200. As I

understand, uni-white balance helps in exposing to the right (ETTR) correctly so

that the red and blue channels are not underexposed. After the shoot, when I

revert to a white balance of my choice ("Daylight" in this case), as expected,

the red channel is shown as overexposed (histogram is peaked to the right). But

presumably there is no real loss of information and highlights can be recovered

(using negative exposure compensation in software) as they are not truly

blown-off, right? Is this the correct workflow for using uni-white balance?

Unfortunately, Capture NX crashes every time I try to pull the exposure down

with Raw adjustments->Exposure compensation. Ironically, there is no problem

adjusting exposure in the positive direction! Has anyone else met the same

problem? I appreciate your help.

The Canon 4x and 8x loupes are highly regarded and expensive (~$150).

I came across this Canon 8x loupe at ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Canon-8x-Power-Photography-Loupe-Lupe-Small-Magnifier_W0QQitemZ270175137745QQihZ017QQcategoryZ29992QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Why is this so cheap? Does anyone have any experience with it?

Frank, I did shoot RAW (NEF). The dust reference picture I took is a .NDF file.

Hans, I know there is dust on the sensor because I can see it on my picture.

I recently took a picture with the 200mm f/4 AI Micro-Nikkor on my D50. To deal

with possible dust on the sensor, I wanted to also take a dust reference image.

However, I found that that particular option was disabled in the Menu (probably

because the non CPU lens does not communicate aperture information to the

camera). So I used with my 18-70mm zoom lens instead to take the dust reference

image. But when I try to apply this dust reference image to my picture (in

Capture NX), I am getting the error message: "No dust reference photo was

found..." although the file is present in that very folder. Can anyone help sort

this out? Thanks!